Attempts are on to save Goa's sinking salt industry which has used traditional production methods since the 10th century
GOA'S traditional salt industry, said to
have been a major supplier of salt to the
country, and an exporter to some foreign countries since the 10th century, is
fast dying. "Salt farming could be
extinct in Goa unless the government
takes it upon itself and does something
to alleviate the problems of existing
units," says Reyna Sequeira, a scholar
from the Goa University.
Till the last century, an estimated 28
Goan villages depended on a salt-based
economy. Today, the figure nosedived
to half a dozen. To pep up the industry,
campaigning groups are fighting to
bring the issue to the administration's
notice.
Salt produced traditionally in Goa
has been used for ice plants, fish curing,
domestic purposes, as a nutrient for
coconut trees, and for salting mangoes
and making pickles. Historians suggest
that the late 19th century Anglo-
Portuguese 'Salt' Treaty struck the first
death-blow to Goa's salt industry. Then
came mining, and destruction of low-
lying walls which protected khazan
lands (reclaimed from tidal flooding by
protective walls stretching for 2,000
km).
Now, with the changes in lifestyles,
traditional salt producers have found
newer means of livelihood. Besides, illegal pisciculture, land 'reclamations',
water pollution due to industrial effluents, sewage, oil and grease from ironore barges, fertilisers and pesticides have
rung the death knell for the trade. Salt
farmers, who lack official support, face
capital shortages. The production also
lacks a minimum-support price.
"Salt-production is an environmentally clean, non-polluting, low-capital,
labour- intensive, employment generating, rural economic activity which
should get full government support,"
said a memorandum from the Pernem
Taluka Salt Producers' Association, a
group of farmers whose salt farms at
Agarwado were recently badly damaged.
In fact, salt farming has the potential
to offer seasonal semi-intensive aqua-
culture, the harvesting of useful salt-tolerant seaweeds and even biofertilisers.
Cyanobacteria, found in salt pans,
are used as nitrogen-fixing partners in
symbiosis with higher plants, and can
greatly reduce the cost of fertilisers.
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